Anchorage, and Alaska for that matter, was not what I expected. Anchorage was a much smaller city than I envisioned, though it was friendly & clean. There was not much to see or do in the city itself, but the seafood was quite excellent. We flew to Kenai on the 26th of May. It was a beautiful flight over the Cook Inlet to the Kenai Airport where I caught my first sight of the world famous Kenai River. I had always pictured Kenai as a beautiful, Park City-like resort town with log homes & quaint, overpriced junk shops lining the main street. It was nothing of the sort. It, along with the other towns I saw in the Cook Inlet area of Alaska, were, well, the best way I can describe them is a Klondike Kansas. If you've never been to the rural Midwest, I'll sum it up this way: imagine all the junk you've ever owned which is too large to fit in a trash can or the back of your beat up old truck scatter around your property rusting out or overgrown with weeds. Add the scenic backdrop of Alaskan mountain ranges, world-class salmon rivers, the ocean & you get the picture. Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing place to see. It just wasn't the place I expected to see as advertised on fishing lodge websites & brochures.
We made our way to a fish camp called the Kenai River Bend Resort right next to the Kenai River to stay in a family friend's trailer. I wasted no time in fishing the Kenai & Kasilof Rivers for migrating Red Salmon (aka Sockeye). Salmon fishing was also not what I expected due to my misconceptions. It never occurred to me that Salmon migrating up river from the ocean to breed & die would have no interest in feeding during their journey--isn't it amazing what ignorance experience can wash away from preconceived perceptions. Thus, I was taken aback when I heard the method used to "catch" Reds on a fly rod. Said method consisted of swinging a split shot bouncing along the river bottom with a 1/0 hook adorned with a brightly color piece of yarn tied to the eyelet. The goal was to swing the bottom bouncing line through the mouth of a Red Salmon swimming up river as it gasped for breath in the oxygen poor fresh water & snag it in the mouth, if you were lucky. I'm still not sure how I felt about fishing like that: a bit like Mortensen fishing for pen-raised stocked trout using PowerBait, I suppose--not very sporting, but as good as it gets when that's what works! Needless to say, my inexperience did not pay off, and I caught nothing. In fact, I caught no Salmon out of the Cook Inlet, the Kenai River, the Kasilof River, and was close to giving up hope of catching an Alaskan King Salmon when the muddy Little Susitna River finally delivered up one of her shinny silver jewels on my last fishing trip in the state. Small though she was for a Salmon, she was delicious!
Ocean Halibut fishing on the Cook Inlet was a very unique & painfully enjoyable experience. I have never had a forearm workout so exhaustive as reeling a 5lb lead weight off the bottom of the ocean 300 feet down in a 5mph current. The Halibut were plentiful, though not large. The largest I caught was around 38lbs, but again, all of them were delicious. My favorite way to catch them was on a curly tail jig the size of, or bigger than, most trout I catch in UT, attached to a 1lb lead head. I was using a much lighter musky rod so the feel was more sensitive & the fight better on the lighter rod.
The wildlife & scenery were incredible. We saw moose & eagles everywhere. Flying over glaciers and Mount McKinley was unbelievable. We departed the Cook Inlet area on the 2nd of June & flew to Fairbanks, AK. Fairbanks had even less happening than Anchorage, and it was not nearly as scenic. On two different days we flew up past the Arctic Circle, which was a desolate vastness that was an amazing ecosystem of flat tundra. We stopped at Ft. Yukon and the following day flew farther to Bettles Lodge.
According to its usual behavior, time dis-obligingly sped up as we drew closer to the end of our trip, and before we knew it, we had departed Fairbanks for Salt Lake City again. Once across the boarder we took a slight detour to fly over Glacier National Park, Flathead Lake & Flathead River near Polson, MT. All were quite beautiful. We had a great flight back to Salt Lake, landing there on June 7th.
I included links to all the YouTube Videos of the trip here & loads of pictures below. I hope you enjoy them & perhaps, someday, make it to Alaska yourself. It will be worth the trip!
Epic Trip Flying from SLC to Anchorage, Alaska
Flying to & Fishing in Kenai, AK
Halibut Fishing Cook Inlet May 2015
Salmon & Halibut Fishing Cook Inlet May 30, 2015
Alaska Flying
Flying to Mount McKinley in Denali National Park, AK
Glacier Flying Near Wasilla, AK
Salmon Fishing Little Susitna River, AK
Arctic Circle Flying Alaska
Flying from Fairbanks to Salt Lake City June 2015
Cook Inlet Flying Photos:
Cook Inlet in the Clouds
Kenai Peninsula
Mountain Range Near Sitka, AK
Glacier Pool Near Sitka, AK
Coast Near Sitka, AK
Sitka, AK
Kodiak Island, AK
Kodiak Island, AK
Kenai River, Kenai, AK
Kasilof River near Soldotna, AK
Kasilof River near Soldotna, AK
Float Plan in the Lake Hood/Lake Spenard Canal
Now That's A Fishing Boat
Boat Launch
Boat Ride
This is what Alaskan's Call A "Nice But"
Kenai River Bend Resort Halibut
King Salmon Jumping in Cook Inlet
King Salmon Fishing on the Little Susitna River at sunrise
Finally, the Little Susitna crowns me a King
Moose near the Cook Inlet Boat Launch Beach
Mount McKinley & Denali National Park Photos:
Talkeetna Airport
Facing Mount McKinley
Back of Mount McKinley
Flying Above the Arctic Circle:
Bettles Lodge, Bettles, AK
Great Alaskan Oil Pipeline
Pictures from Flight Home:
Glacier National Park, MT
Flathead Lake Polson, MT
Flathead River Polson, MT
Flathead River (It looks like it needs to be fished)
Flying Over A Wildfire in Canada
The Great Salt Lake
SPOT Images:
Initial Leg Flying from Salt Lake through Idaho
May 22, 2015
May 22, 2015
Flying through Idaho to Cut Bank, MT
then on to Lethbridge, AB Canada
May 22, 2015
then on to Lethbridge, AB Canada
May 22, 2015
Not pictured is the flight from Lethbridge to Calgary
& Calgary to Grand Prarie
Flying from Grand Prairie to Watson Lake Canada
May 23, 2015
Flying from Watson Lake to Beaver Creek, Canada
May 23, 2015
May 23, 2015
Flying from Beaver Creek to Anchorage, AK
May 23-24, 2015
May 23-24, 2015
Flying from Anchorage to Kenai May 26, 2015
Wade Fishing the Kenai River at Fish Camp May 26, 2015
Wade Fishing the Kasilof River May 26, 2015
Ocean Fishing Launch Site on Cook Inlet May 27, 2015
Salmon & Halibut Fishing with Captain Steve's Guide Service
May 27, 2015
Floating the Kasilof River King Salmon Fishing
May 28, 2015
Ocean Salmon & Halibut Fishing with
Kenai River Bend Guide Service
May 29, 2015
Kenai River Bend Guide Service May 29, 2015
Wally's Guide Service Salmon Fishing
May 30, 2015
Wally's Guide Service Halibut Fishing May 30, 2015
Flying from Wasilla to Little Susitna River
June 1, 2015
King Salmon Fishing the Little Susitna River
June 1, 2015
Flying from Wasilla to Talkeetna, around Mt. McKinley,
& over a Glacier June 1, 2015
Flying from Wasilla to Fairbanks
June 2, 2015
Arctic Circle Flying from Fairbanks to Ft. Yukon
June 3, 2015
Flying from Fairbanks to Bettles Lodge
June 4, 2015
Initial Leg Flying Home from Fairbanks to Delta Junction
June 5, 2015
Flying from Delta Junction to Whitehorse, Canada
June 5, 2015
Flying from Whitehorse to Fort St. John
June 5, 2015
2nd Leg Flying from Fort St. John to Lethbridge
June 6, 2015
Flying from Lethbridge, Canada to Polson, MT
& through Glacier National Park
June 6, 2015
Last Leg Flying from Polson, MT to Salt Lake City, UT
June 7, 2015
